The Lottery - Anyone hit it?

[DaTow'd]

A few years ago I worked as longshoreman loading logs for export. I'd pick up my pal every morning and drive to the docks. I've been buying and playing the same numbers for many years.
I mentioned I won to him but don't know the exact amount.
I said to keep it hushed up and we would check the ticket after work and the drinks were on me at our usual bar stop.
All day when I'd see him he would give me the thumbs up and smiled a lot. Some how word got out.
All my buds were smiling and and laughing and all showed at the bar.
I hit the Lotto store and walked out with $75 -only 3 number out of 6
It didn't take long to spend it. We all had a good laugh.
Like you always hear "You can't win if you don't play"
BTW our last name is Winning
Hank

 

[skeets]

ctfjr,,,, nice key!

 

[ctfjr]

ctfjr,,,, nice key!

Handmade by RA1AOM, Russian ham. Some kind of Ural stone

 

[lugbolt]

Only time I have ever won a game of chance, was a door prize at a church get together. A seat cover for a Kawasaki Prairie 300/400. I did not own a Prairie 300 or 400 thus I gave the seat cover to my boss and he sold it. Fine by me.

I don't play the lottery. No chance of winning. besides in my entire life, of playing games like that, I've only won ONCE. case in point--I was doing groundscare for a cemetery and had been doing it for a few years. Just me, I was the groudscare crew. Anyway the cemetery board had a raffle. They raffled off a Honda Rancher 420. 480 tickets total were sold at $5 each. I traded my labor for tickets, I had 422 tickets in the basket and a combined 58 for everyone else. I didn't win it and I'm fine with that; and here is why.

I got in on how the state raffle commission handles this. It's an absolute joke. The cemetery board bought the ATV at dealer cost because the cemetery is a nonprofit. The chairman of the board is also an owner of that dealer. Anyway, the guy who won the ATV had to pay sales tax, prize tax, PDI fee, Document fees, warranty registration fee, this fee, that fee, etc. In the end, about 40% of the ATV's MSRP was paid in taxes and fees and most of that was the taxes. The cemetery made money, the dealer made money, the state made money and the new owner got duped. A Rancher 420. Nothing special.

Local lottery taxes are 29% if the winning is over $5,000. That is the exact reason that the state passed the lottery laws way back when, tax income-and not much more. Same for allowing alcohol in the city, they collect up to 30% tax on that too; depending on what and where you get. Now they want marijuana, and that's the same way, they're gonna tax it heavily too. The greedy state wants that money and I am not giving it to them.

 

[torch]

I won the money for life lottery.

My boss told me so when I was hired.

 

[ipz2222]

One of my employee's won 150,000. It destroyed him. 11 mths later, he is dead broke and living with his Dad in a trailer park.

 

[skeets]

The lottery is the most fun you can have for 2 bucks with your clothes on

 

[Lil Foot]

Saw a program on lottery winners years ago. They showed a range of successes and problems, but the one that always stuck with me was the tale of a 21yr old guy from New Orleans, who won an 21 mill lump sum.
He was a sheetrocker, who by all accounts was doing pretty well.
11 days later he was flat broke, in debt up to his ears, lost his job, his car, and his girlfriend.

Most of the other stories followed the same theme.
Winners having to change their name and disappear to get away from the continuous begging, bullying, and badgering from relatives, strangers, scammers, and charities, all wanting money.

The closest contact I've had with a winner was a young Navaho Indian who worked in assembly in our plant. Just knew him enough to say "Hi" in the hall occasionally.
He hit the AZ lottery for about 1.3 mill after taxes.
We thought he would quit, (I would have) but he returned to work, still driving an old Dodge Intrepid.
When questioned about it, he admitted that he was a recovering alcoholic, and knew that if he had that kind of money, he would drink himself to death in short order. He gave his family some money and donated the rest to the tribe.

 

[lugbolt]

Saw a program on lottery winners years ago. They showed a range of successes and problems, but the one that always stuck with me was the tale of a 21yr old guy from New Orleans, who won an 21 mill lump sum.
He was a sheetrocker, who by all accounts was doing pretty well.
11 days later he was flat broke, in debt up to his ears, lost his job, his car, and his girlfriend.

Most of the other stories followed the same theme.
Winners having to change their name and disappear to get away from the continuous begging, bullying, and badgering from relatives, strangers, scammers, and charities, all wanting money.

The closest contact I've had with a winner was a young Navaho Indian who worked in assembly in our plant. Just knew him enough to say "Hi" in the hall occasionally.
He hit the AZ lottery for about 1.3 mill after taxes.
We thought he would quit, (I would have) but he returned to work, still driving an old Dodge Intrepid.
When questioned about it, he admitted that he was a recovering alcoholic, and knew that if he had that kind of money, he would drink himself to death in short order. He gave his family some money and donated the rest to the tribe.

same deal with my friend. The state i live in started the lottery in I think 2010 (?) and he was the first 7 digit winner, cash payout still 7 digits. Had to change his name, move, got married, basically changed his whole life. He's still well-off, he still works, but he doesn't "have" to. Really the only people who know that he's got that kind of money are him, the wife, and myself.

Of that money, you'll spend a lot of it making the necessary changes to your life, because of that money.

and yes I know of one other who won big money. Broke. How can one be broke so quickly? You don't know unless you've been close to someone who's been through it. It don't take long to spend a million. Problem is, once people get the money, they want to spend it on, things. Then those things are taxable and often they cost to own in other ways as well. Once the money's gone, those things usually ain't far behind.

The lottery really only works for one. The government. They get about half of the winnings over a certain amount and half of a big number is significant. YOU (the winner) will spend part of it it just keeping 'everyone' off your back.

 

[lynnmor]

The lottery really only works for one. The government. They get about half of the winnings over a certain amount and half of a big number is significant. YOU (the winner) will spend part of it it just keeping 'everyone' off your back.

It is even worse than that, most lottery winning amounts are only half of what is taken in, the government keeps the other half. Then the cash value is only about half of the stated amount. Now you get to pay taxes on your cash winnings.

 

[skeets]

Yep taxes eat up over half, unless you are a canuck, then you pay the taxes, file the paper work and get them all back. I only know this because a friend hit for a large chunk of cash. They took the taxes out and she filed for a refund as she was not an American citizen 9, 10 months later the bank notified her there was a large deposit in her account.

 

[lugbolt]

yup they get all that tax money but the roads still suck the schools still suck the game wardens still try to get every penny out of you, etc

but hey city hall and the state capital get renovated every 6 months so that should be a blessing, right?

I worked at the state capital a litlte while while I was a teenager. The things that go on, are just dumb. Or smart. Case in point, the state was projected to end at $900,000 under budget in 1996 so they hired some "workers" who really weren't, but you know they had to get rid of the money somehow; in order to get it the next year. And if they don't get it next year, they might go over budget which nobody wants, right?

hence they'll go after whatever they can get for a buck, legally. That might mean making a dry county wet so they can collect 30% sales taxes, or legalizing mary jane, also to collect 100% (or whatever) taxes on it. Meanwhile the people who are paying the tax? Get nothing in return. The government keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, leading us closer to authoritarian leadership, perhaps even borderline socialist. And I'm not taking a side here, I'm just saying, people need to think about things in depth before casting an opinion.

 

[lynnmor]

The government keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, leading us closer to authoritarian leadership, perhaps even borderline socialist.

Borderline? We passed that mile marker way back.

 

[Henro]

Gee...I just realized I will miss my chance to buy a lottery ticket for the now huge Powerball drawing tonight...Poor me. I just saved a couple bucks probably...lOL

 

[RCW]

I had an acquaintance that won $3-5MM just before I met him.

Good and simple guy. Had retired just before the windfall. Grew up as a farmer and got out when young

Don’t think it changed him much, but I think he was more apt to buy a couple old tractors than before he won. Also built a pole barn to put his stuff in.

I was with him when he bought a Ford 5000 at auction.

Was a hell of a buy as I recall, and he wasn’t going any higher with his price. Tractor was solid as I recall, and he got it for $3k or so.

Guessing most of the 3-5 was still intact.

 

[Benhameen]

A friend of mine won $47,000, take home, on a queen of hearts drawing last week.
A few years ago my wives card was drawn at another large($1.25 million) queen of hearts drawing. She changed her number and didn’t win. The next week the guy used her original number and won it. So if she hadn’t changed her number we would be a little better off but …

 

[fried1765]

I won the lottery when my wife found me on a train between Moscow and Helsinki!

50th anniversary coming soon...

A Japanese woman, on a train between Moscow and Helsinki?
What are the odds for THAT ?

 

[Daylight]

About the same as meeting an Uchinawan lady in an Irish pub in Stavanger, I guess...

A Japanese woman, on a train between Moscow to Helsinki?
What are the odds for THAT ?

 

[Henro]

A Japanese woman, on a train between Moscow to Helsinki?
What are the odds for THAT ?

I guess that's why I don't play the lottery often. I realize winning twice is almost impossible...

And yes, a Japanese woman traveling on a train in Russia in 1970 was probably unusual...as was a poor American traveler too I would imagine...LOL

Funniest thing is it was December and I had come north from Southeast Asia, and my only piece of warm clothing was my sleeping bag...of course you did not need to wear your warm clothing on the train...probably a good thing...

 

[D2Cat]

So were you nude while on the train?